The Instructions Concerning Excluded Relationships – Proxy, Telephone, Fax, Internet or Similar Marriage Forms Where One or Both Parties Are Not Physically Present

Summary

This Operational Bulletin (OB) provides operational guidance to staff from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). It instructs them on the regulatory amendments that denote an excluded relationship in all temporary and permanent resident programs comprising:

Proxy

Telephone

Fax

Internet or,

Similar forms of marriage where one or both parties are not physically present

Background

The authorities have defined a proxy marriage as a marriage where one or both of the participants are not physically present. In these situations, another person would typically represent one or both of the parties at the solemnisation of the marriage. Similarly, a telephone, fax or internet marriage is a marriage where one or both of the participants are not physically present at the same location. As such, they participate in the solemnisation of the marriage by telephone, fax, internet or any other means e.g. Skype or FaceTime. In these situations, it is equally possible that someone other than the individuals getting married participates on their behalf over the telephone, by fax, internet or any other means.

Prior to the coming into force of these regulatory amendments, foreign nationals were eligible for immigrating to Canada as spouses, as long as their marriages were legally valid in the country in which it took place. As such, foreign nationals did not necessarily need to be physically present at their wedding ceremonies. This applied to all permanent and temporary immigration programs.

The Government of Canada has decided to address the vulnerability of women in the immigration context. Therefore, it has taken steps to address the issue of forced marriage. It believes that the very nature of proxy, telephone, fax, internet and other similar forms of marriage can help in facilitating forced marriages. This is especially so because one or both spouses are not physically present. As a result, determining the consent to the marriage of these individuals often becomes even more difficult.

This is why the authorities have made regulatory amendments to section 5 and subsections 117 (9) and 125 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). These amendments explicitly identify a marriage where one or both parties were not physically present as an excluded marriage. As such, they enhance the strength of the tools used for denying all such marriages for immigration purposes. This is especially because these excluded marriages share a very real connection to early and forced marriages.

1.1 The New Excluded Relationship

The authorities have made regulatory amendments to section 5 and subsections 117 (9) and 125 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). All these amendments describe the conditions under which the authorities consider a relationship excluded. These regulations typically include the following amendments:

5. For the purposes of these Regulations, a foreign national shall not be considered

(c) the spouse of a person if at the time the marriage ceremony was conducted either one of both of the spouses were not physically present unless the person was not physically present at the ceremony as a result of their service as a member of the Canadian Forces and the marriage is valid both under the laws of the jurisdiction where it took place and under Canadian law.

117. (9) A foreign national shall not be considered a member of the family class by virtue of their relationship to a sponsor if

(c.1) the foreign national is the sponsor’s spouse and if at the time the marriage ceremony was conducted either one or both of the spouses were not physically present unless the foreign national was marrying a person who was not physically present at the ceremony as a result of their service as a member of the Canadian Forces and the marriage is valid both under the laws of the jurisdiction where it took place and under Canadian law;

125. (1) A foreign national shall not be considered a member of the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class by virtue of their relationship to the sponsor if

(c.1) the foreign national is the sponsor’s spouse and if at the time the marriage ceremony was conducted either one or both of the spouses were not physically present unless the foreign national was married to a person who was not physically present at the ceremony as a result of their service as a member of the Canadian Forces and the marriage is valid both under the laws of the jurisdiction where it took place and under Canadian law; or

1.2 The Definition of What it Means to be Physically Present

Both parties e.g. the sponsor and the spouse or the principal applicant and the accompanying spouse would need to have participated in a wedding ceremony in person. Only then would the authorities consider the individuals as being physically present at a marriage ceremony.